It's called CrowdStrike and everything points to it being the reason behind the global outage affecting Microsoft worldwide, impacting hundreds of systems and consequently, hundreds of companies worldwide.
Earlier today, authorities in Australia reported that dozens of companies were experiencing system outages due to an issue with the global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. Hours later, like a virus, hundreds of systems worldwide started crashing: Aena airports in Spain, gas stations of Repsol, Iberdrola, US airlines, TV channels like Sky News, banks, and more.
The error appears in the form of a Windows blue screen of death, rendering the computer unusable. Initially, a normal computer restart should have restored the proper functioning of the entire infrastructure. However, after restarting the computer, the system enters a loop of restarts, displaying the same blue screen repeatedly, with no way to do anything.
"Sky News was unable to broadcast live television this morning and is currently informing viewers that we apologize for the interruption," the TV station stated on its social media.
The cybersecurity company CrowdStrike has been issuing a recorded phone message for several hours now, informing about reports of Windows operating system failures related to its Falcon sensor.
"Thank you for contacting CrowdStrike support. CrowdStrike is aware of reports of Windows failures... related to the Falcon sensor," the message reads.
Windows blue screen of death.
The issue seems to be with the update of the CrowdStrike program, a cybersecurity service. This program is used in numerous Spanish and worldwide companies as a tool designed to stop security breaches. It is an application used on operating systems like Windows, Mac, or Linux, hence all companies working with Windows and using this application are experiencing a widespread system crash.
CrowdStrike is an agent-based sensor that can be installed on desktop computers or server platforms with Windows, Mac, or Linux operating systems. These platforms rely on a cloud-hosted SaaS solution to manage policies, control reporting data, manage threats, and respond to them.
It is the cloud-hosted cybersecurity platform that serves many companies with Windows systems -almost all of those affected-. The Texan company has no direct relationship with Microsoft, but it is the firm they trust to protect them from Cyberattacks and other digital security threats.
Just a few minutes ago, both Microsoft and CrowdStrike, who are working to resolve the issue, have released an emergency bulletin with an action to mitigate this problem, requiring action from the IT departments of all companies using this security service and affected by this issue. In fact, CrowdStrike is attempting to roll back the update that caused this global outage.
Although CrowdStrike has not issued an official statement, their teams are providing guidance to companies using their application on how to resolve the crash and restore normalcy as soon as possible. The process is manual, user by user, so resolving this situation will take time in companies with many employees.